Search for Paradise
Search for Paradise is a post-apocalyptic action-adventure video game that takes inspiration from games such as Double Dragon and the more recent God of War series. The game was developed by Ubisoft and was published on November 4th, 2020. The game's plot is inspired by another famous property, Fist of the North Star, taking place in a future full of bandits and murderers who are taken down by a man with incredible amounts of power. Gameplay The game is a typical beat 'em up game where you go around fighting people. The big difference though is that the game is open world and the player can explore a vast space of land, encountering many people and quests along the way. The game's main mechanic is that the main character of the game, Nomad, can learn new fighting moves from people he watches. To learn a new move, the player goes into a mode known as "Blind Vision" where Nomad closes his eyes and listens to the people around him in search of something interesting. When he finds one, he watches it and turns what he sees into a fighting move, such as pretending he is going to hit someone in order to stun them for a short amount of time. The game also features many different items that can help Nomad through the game, such as weapons, food, etc. The most important of these is a drug that can be found called Love, which boosts all of Nomad's stats for a short amount of time. However, when it wears off Nomad's stats go all the way down and he will begin doing a lot less damage and walk far slower for quite some time. The only way of curing this is an item called Hate which counteracts the effects of Love and destroys all Love in a person's system. A big part of the game is its "Reputation System" which means that the player's actions preceded them. This means that if the player harms a random person the people who witness it will remember and if the player defeats a bandit in the area the people in that area will know what you did. Cast & Characters Playable *'Nolan North' as The Nomad, the main character of the game who is a very strong man in a black hood that doesn't speak very often. NPCs *'Laura Bailey' as Julie, Nomad's wife before the apocalypse who sadly died. *'Eric Bauza' as Soba, a shopkeeper who sells the player upgrades, weapons, and food (mostly noodles). *'TBD' as Lucky, a little girl who plays a very big role in the final chapters of the game. * Antagonists *'The Fist of God', the five most powerful warlords in the world who all despise each other. **'Matthew Mercer '''as '''Payback', the main antagonist of the game who is the youngest and most powerful warlord in the world. Little is known about him and he likes it that way. **'Kevin Michael Richardson '''as '''Tombstone', the second most powerful warlord in the world who has indestructible skin. His battle marks a turning point that shows the game's jokes will now be very scarce. **'Troy Ba'k'er' as Maggot, a powerful warlord who has a strange obsession with bugs claiming that he has the powers of any bug. **'Khary Payton' as Disco Dan, a warlord who is obsessed with dancing, specifically disco. His obsession is so great that his entire lair is styled after a disco party. **'John DiMaggio' as King Dio, the first major boss in the game who is a warlord that enjoys alcohol and, despite being rather rotund, is incredible at fighting. *'Rob Paulsen '''as '''Warthog', a mini-boss who is the first enemy the player faces in the game. * Plot Prologue The game begins with a short scene showing a teenage Nomad speaking with Julie. Whenever Nomad's name is said all sound suddenly drains out making it impossible to tell what Julie said. The two discuss how they first met each other in the middle of the woods but their conversation is interrupted by an older boy, named Brian, who makes sexist comments at Julie's expense until Nomad gets sick of it and beats Brian until he leaves. After this, Nomad drops to his knees in pain, admitting Brain got a few good hits on him. He is lifted up by Julie, who asks Nomad to never do that again but does admit he is one of the sweetest people she's ever met and asks him never to change. Nomad says he won't and it cuts to a now grown-up Nomad who is clearly a changed man. Chapter One Nomad comes across a village where he decides to stay the night. However, while there he discovers there is a large group of bandits in the area that come every night and kill the people of the village. After finding this out, Nomad waits outside for the bandits, discovering that the bandit leader is Brian, who is now going by the name Warthog. The two have a short fight which ends in Nomad defeating Warthog and telling him to never show his face again. More TBA Side Missions TBA Reception The game received generally positive reviews from critics who loved the game's villains and enjoyed the combat system. However, a big critique of the game is that the item Love's effects when they wear off are too great. Most critics enjoyed Payback, with one going as far as to claim he could be the main character of his own game. Notes *According to books found in the game, everyone's names in the post-apocalypse where adopted as a way of shedding their previous identity, with shedding your identity being the ultimate sign you have accepted the apocalypse for what it is. Trivia *Payback wears a helmet in the game that is based on the main antagonist of the My Hero Academia manga/anime, All for One. This is not the only reference to anime/manga in the game but it is the most obvious. *Payback is the only boss who has a new introduction for each phase of his battle. Each introduction changes his name. The names he is referred to as are as follows: "Payback", "Rodney", "A Driven Man", and finally "The Hero."